Empathy
by Infinite Snow
Summary: To understand someone's pain, one must be in pain as well. For Maka and Kid, this means losing someone that is dear and precious to them. Character deaths. [KidxMaka, KiMa]


"Fool! Your dad is dead!" Excalibur jerked his head to the side and propped his cane up like a proud man conquering an island.

"Excalibur, you idiot!" Maka harshly whispered.

"What? Do you want me to lie and tell him Shinigami-sama is alive?" Excalibur looked at Maka as if she was crazy.

"That is not how you break sad news to someone!" Maka yelled.

"That's okay," a quiet voice came. Maka's heart almost froze.

"K-Kid?" Maka took tiny steps toward the silent reaper and reached a gloved hand out towards his face. Kid stepped back, shocking the blonde meister.

"I'm fine. I can handle it," Kid murmured. He then turned on his heels and left the room.

Maka was furious. She could throttle that high class pimp with a cane at the moment. She jabbed an angry finger in Excalibur's direction and yelled, "You could have showed a little bit of empathy towards him! Don't you think losing his father MIGHT have an impact on Kid?"

"Really?" Excalibur tilted his head in curiosity.

"No shit Sherlock!" Maka flipped her hands and smacked her forehead. Excalibur must be the most dense person she had ever met.

"Well how am I supposed to empathize with him when I do not feel his pain?" Excalibur pointed out.

Maka froze, but coughed and regained her serious composure, "You could have said it less arrogantly."

"Fool! I am not arrogant! If anything you are so prude!" Excalibur pointed a cane in Maka's face.

Maka sighed irritably and counted to ten, knowing if she didn't get to the two digit number in time, she would definitely snap the cane being pointed to her eye sockets.

"You will never understand, Excalibur, Kid's pain," Maka softly sighed as she turned around and left the room.

'I have to catch up with him,' Maka thought.

-x-

It was raining. It was raining very hard.

Maka saw Kid's outline going in the general direction of his house. But the weird thing was, he didn't summon Beelzebub like he did all the other times.

Maka, confused, ran up to him, since he was walking at such a slow pace and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him stop but not surprised.

"Kid, I know you are sad. Accept it, Excalibur has no feelings," Maka said.

"I know," he said in such a resigned tone.

"It must be hard," Maka nodded, "And it is very painful without Shinigami-sama. I miss him too. That's why I am here. I am your friend. And as your friend, I am here to bother you as much as possible!"

Kid didn't laugh at the joke. He didn't even move from Maka's grip. He just trained his golden eyes on the cobblestone pathway.

"What do you know about my pain?" Kid asked so suddenly.

"Well, I know it must be painful without your dad, and-"

"No you don't."

The cold words almost made Maka's heart drop into her stomach. She wanted to cry. Why was Kid acting like this? He was never like this.

"You do not know what it feels like to lose someone special to you from your life, forever," Kid said softly.

"W-What about my m-mom?" Maka choked.

"Is she dead?"

"No."

"Then you do not understand."

Kid roughly jerked his shoulder from Maka's hand on his shoulder and walked down the cold pathway, not even caring he was getting asymmetrically wet.

"Dummy…" Maka croaked, "You are getting asymmetrical in the rain the longer you stay out there…"

But Kid didn't hear her.

-x-

Class was boring. Dissecting was loathsome. Breathing was difficult. Eating was painful. Homework flew by too quickly. Test didn't pin her down. Crying didn't take away the pain from her chest, but they did dry her eyes of all the tears they had to give.

In the end it got her nowhere.

She stood, isolating herself from her friends. They tried to reach out to her and Soul tried to comfort her about what Kid said. But what he said felt so true. She didn't understand him until she lost someone who was her whole life.

"I would like to see Maka Albarn as soon as possible."

The empty and now lifeless voice of Lord Death The Kid's droned over the PA system. Maka lifted her head lifelessly from her homework.

"Good thing I finished today's homework I guess…" Maka sniffled as she packed her stuff and put it up in her bag. Slowly and sadly she made her way to the Death Room where she knew she wouldn't be greeted by the former Shinigami-sama's overly large hands making weird peace signs and 'Yo!' filling up the room followed by 'Wazzup?'.

"You wanted to see me, Shinigami-sama?" Maka said in a flat voice.

Kid flinched. The voice prior to his father's death was so live and so bubbly. Maka was never depressed. It was either she was in Mode: Kill or Mode: Happy.

"I got notification that your mother was killed," a huge thick lump formed in Kid's throat. He knew Maka wouldn't see it from his mask covering his face.

Little diamonds poured from Maka's beautiful green eyes to the point it broke Kid's heart.

"Hey, it is okay, don't worry, we can-" Kid made an attempt to reach over and wipe her tears away and hug her but Maka stepped back.

"Are you happy now?" Maka's voice was thick.

"Why would I be happy?" Kid asked, astonished.

"My mom is dead. Now you don't have a right to form a pity party in a corner," Maka looked at him angrily.

Kid was speechless.

"You say you are the only one without a parent, don't you? Why don't you ask Liz or Patty? Or Tsubaki and Black*Star? What about them? They lectured me on how nice it is to be close to my dad even though he is a womanizing jerk!"

"But they could at the most say sorry about it and move on with their lives," Kid whispered.

"And you want someone to hang over you and cry for you forever?" Maka glared at him through his mask.

Kid could say nothing to that. Maka was right.

"I am not letting you touch Soul," Maka snapped and turned around.

"But he is my death scythe!"

"I do not care. I made him into one by my own hands. I made him a death scythe for your father and thought when he died you would be his meister. But seeing you as someone so weak and depressed and feels like all the attention in the world," Maka gulped, "Then I am never letting you wield him. He is not for weak and self-centered people like you. He is built for strong fighters."

Maka stomped out of the Death Room and Kid slumped into his chair.

"Why do you make my heart beat painfully every time I see you?" Kid groaned, "Why do you make me fall deeper and deeper in love with you every time you talk?"

-x-

Maka trudged down the hallway, looking flawless than ever in her Spartoi uniform. She became legendary, being an exceptional student of being capable of creating a Death Scythe.

"Hey…look at who is watching her!" someone squealed like a fangirl.

Maka snorted. Probably it was Soul. Lately he kept an eye on her because she was so withdrawn and didn't enjoy doing anything anymore. Heck, she didn't even hit him on his cranium when he made a sexist joke clear as day in front of her. She just looked at him and ignored him.

"Oh my gawd," a girl with a curvy figure near Maka put her hands up to her flaming cheeks, "He is SO hot with a mask on!"

Maka's heart did a double take. The only person she really knows who wears masks is… Kid.

Maka turned around. She saw the end of a shinigami skull mask before it disappeared from her eyes. She shook her head and rubbed it with a hand. It was definitely a mirage, right?

"Yeah, just a trick of the light…" Maka murmured before continuing her walk down the hallway to her next class.

-x-

"Kid, what is up with you?" Liz groaned when the three were alone at the Gallows Mansion.

"Nothing is wrong," Kid argued.

"Oh yeah and I must be a unicorn," Liz outlined the horn on her forehead to exaggerate her sarcasm.

"Liz it is none of your business," Kid sighed, "Just leave me alone. I have work to do."

"It is about your father isn't it? And Maka, right?" Liz stayed stubborn.

"No. I am depressed over ponies," Kid glared at his paperwork.

"Don't sass me. You are the one making her so worried over you," Liz wagged a finger to be the attitude adjuster.

"What do you want me to do about that, Liz? Obviously she didn't know what it is like to lose someone important!" Kid threw his hands up in the air and glared at her, "And now the weight is so suffocating."

"You actually think you are going through this entire burden? What about me? Patty? And the others? What about them? Just ask us and we will tell you how hard it is to have no parents," Liz whispered.

"But you wouldn't understand. With dad gone… all this burden comes crashing down on me, and it is too much to handle," Kid whispered.

"What about Maka, huh? Do you think she is totally fine not seeing her mother? Or having a father that freely flirts in front of her? Do you think she chose that kind of lifestyle?" Liz glared at Kid.

"Her mom is dead."

"What?" Liz's face drained out of color.

"H-E-R M-O-M I-S D-E-A-D," Kid slowly spelled out the four words as if he was sharing the news with a baby.

Liz socked Kid in the shoulder for the baby pace and said, "I can decipher English, thank you very much."

"Well then let me do my work."

"No."

"Why not?"

"You still have to make up with the one person you pushed away," Liz folded her arms.

"Her mom is dead and my dad is dead. We are even," Kid sighed before attempting to do his paperwork piling on his shiny black desk, once more. Liz grew a huge tick mark on her forehead and then slammed her fist down onto Kid's cranium, though it doesn't hurt as much as Maka's Maka Chop.

"Ow, what the heck, Liz!"

"I thought I made it clear you are not going to do your paperwork."

"Liz, now is not the time!"

"Oh it is! Listening to you made me think that you probably wanted her mom dead this whole time!" Liz shot back, fury building in her sapphire eyes.

"I would never think like that!" Kid argued.

"Then why is paperwork much more important to you than Maka?" Liz asked and Kid froze. She struck a chord there when his face drained of color.

"I will leave you to decide that," Liz said and silently spun on her heels and softly clicked the door to Kid's office, closed.

Kid didn't even bother to touch his paperwork. His mind drifted off to Maka, her sad face, and her depressed face with tears running down it. All of them broke his heart, even more than when Excalibur roughly shoved the truth and reality to his face. It hurt much more than that. Somehow, it felt like his heart was getting ripped out of his chest.

The pain was excruciating.

-x-

She looked alone. Alone, weak and helpless.

In her beautiful black lace dress that went down to her ankles. In her sad, thin veil that briefly and thinly masked Maka's mournful face.

Maka clutched the very last postcard she got from her mom. It was in Paris, so nicknamed the 'City of Love'. On the side, in beautiful calligraphy, was scribbled, 'Love'.

Maka stepped forward. Her mom looked so pale and so beautiful, like an older version of her. Kami looked so comfortable that she looked like she was asleep, not dead. Maka wanted to shake her shoulders and hoped that Kami would wake up and gently smile at her.

"You are even more beautiful than me," Maka whispered.

Maka tucked a beautiful white rose in between her hands and nestled the postcard within her fingers as if she was actually holding it.

"This last lesson, I have to find for myself," Maka whispered.

She then turned around and sat down. She watched, with her head hung low as the coffin snapped closed. She watched with a heavy heart as the black earth covered her mom's coffin forever.

Even after the ceremony was over, Maka stayed. She crumbled to her knees and wept.

And wept and wept and wept until no more tears could leak out of her eyes.

-x-

She didn't pay much mind to anyone after that.

School was boring. Life was dull. She only concentrated on school work and becoming number one in class because her mom was top of the class.

Maka moved her mechanical pencil smoothly across her homework she did her math homework.

_So using the addition rule, the derivative of x^3+2x^2+5 is 3x^2+4x. Last problem done, _Maka thought as she snapped her Calculus 1 textbook and put up her homework and books in her bag.

"Maka?" a voice came.

"Yeah?" Maka said as she made her way down the steps of the classroom.

"What were you doing here this late? I was worried," Soul said.

"You are always worried," Maka rolled her eyes.

"I have a reason to ever since…" Soul trailed off and Maka nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Come on let's go home," Maka started for the door when Soul stopped her.

"About that…" Soul started off.

"Soul, what is it?" Maka sighed impatiently.

"Kid is calling for you in the Death Room," Soul gave the slip to her with the official skull seal, and Maka inwardly groaned.

"Fine. Wait for me at home. Your turn to cook tonight," Maka slapped her forehead.

"Okay," Soul grinned, showing off his sharp shark teeth and went to his motorcycle and drove out of her sight.

Maka softly smiled before frowning deeply. She remembered the matter at hand. Looking at the slip in her hand in distaste, she muttered something along the lines of, "What does that idiot want to do to me now? Give me a lecture on how much pain he is going through?"

Maka walked to the Death Room. She sighed in impatience and said, "What can I be of service to you, Shinigami-sama?"

"I told you to call me Kid."

"It doesn't matter if we are friends or not. Because you are the new Lord Death, formalities are mandatory," Maka said coldly.

Kid spun around. Maka's eyes widened. He wasn't wearing his mask. She can't look at him then. Maka quickly looked to the side, probably at the corner and imagined a snake crawling up.

"Maka, look at me."

Maka refused. She imagined the she and the snake were having a staring contest.

"Maka?"

Footsteps stopped right in front of her. One warm hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her into a hug. Maka can't look at him unless he puts on his mask.

"I can't look at you because you are not wearing your mask," Maka murmured.

"I will let you see my face," Kid smoothly said.

A finger hooked her chin and lifted her face up and to the side to meet his hurt and saddened and worried golden eyes.

Tears started to leak out of Maka's emerald ones. She couldn't take it anymore. The heavy burden in her chest spilled out as she hugged him tightly and sobbed freely. Her thin frame shook with each heavy sob that escaped her lips.

Tears silently trailed down Kid's eyes as he sadly stroked the blonde's back.

"It won't be painful as long as you promise me one thing," Kid softly whispered in her ear.

Maka eagerly nodded.

"Stay by my side for all eternity. It gets lonely sometimes," Kid whispered.

Maka nodded, "Forever."

"For eternity," they spoke in unison.

And so, from two tragedies, new love bloomed.

-fin-


End file.
